5 Issues That May Be Delaying Apple’s Purchase of Beats

Ever since the Financial Times first broke the story that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was seeking to purchase Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion on May 8, various media outlets have repeatedly reported that the deal was on the verge of being finalized. With no indication that the deal had been closed last week, Re/Code cited insider sources who predicted that the two companies would ink a deal this week. However, with less than twenty-four hours left in this week, it appears that the rumored acquisition has been put on hold once again. So why is a deal that so many insiders are convinced is about to happen being delayed yet again?

Billboard, the source of several previous leaks about Apple’s music industry ambitions, has compiled a list of five reasons why the Apple-Beats deal is being held up, based on information from insider sources and industry rumors. The first reason cited byBillboard may also be the most obvious: the acquisition is being delayed because “it’s complicated.” Although Apple completed fifteen strategic acquisitions in fiscal year 2013, those deals involved much smaller amounts of money. “Remember this is the biggest deal they’ve ever done, and it’s CEO Tim Cook’s first really big deal,” an insider source toldBillboard. The most that Apple has ever paid for a company was in 1997 when it acquired NeXT for $400 million in a deal that also returned Steve Jobs to the company he helped found.

The second reason why the deal is being delayed may be that the news was leaked too early, noted another of Billboard’s sources. In other words, whoever leaked the original story may have miscalculated how close the deal was to being completed. Of course, this also begs the question of how a $3.2 billion figure emerged if Apple was not close to finalizing the deal.